Maradona Quotes

I am not Pele or Maradona

Messi is the best that's played the game. Streets ahead of Maradona.

What Zidane can do with a football, Maradona could do with an orange.

I've been around some very famous people, but no one has the effect Maradona has; people tremble in his presence.

What differences were there between Maradona and Platini?

Even if I played for a million years, I’d never come close to Maradona. Not that I’d want to anyway. He’s the greatest there’s ever been.

I am Maradona, who makes goals, who makes mistakes. I can take it all, I have shoulders big enough to fight with everybody.

Only two players made me cry when watching football, one was Diego Maradona and the other Ryan Giggs.

The myth about me as a footballer has grown: I am now the lost Maradona of Norway.

The goal was scored a little bit by the hand of God, another bit by the head of Maradona.

For such a small man Maradona gets great elevation on his balls

You can keep all your Bests, Peles and Maradonas, Duncan Edwards was the greatest of them all.

He has been named as the heir apparent of the great Argentine hero, Diego Maradona, by journalists, players, and Maradona himself, alike. I'd personally put him in a drawer of my bedside table.

I was a big fan of Maradona growing up and of the current crop Ronaldo is good but Messi is the best I’ve ever seen. I don’t dish out praise lightly but Messi deserves it. I look for weaknesses in his game and I can’t find them.

I have cried twice in my life watching a football player; the first one was Maradona and the second was Ryan Giggs.

Diego (Maradona) has filled us with emotions. But between the cracks, without doubt, Messi is better than Maradona.

Messi is a genius. He has everything. When I watch him, I see a player who is very, very skilful, very clever and his left foot is like Diego Maradona's.

Critics have always questioned whether players like Pele from the 50s could play today. Lionel Messi could play in the 1950s and the present day, as could Di Stefano, Pele, Maradona, Cruyff because they are all great players. Lionel Messi without question fits into that category.

Messi. 86 goals in calendar year and still 3 games to play! Best to ever play the game in my opinion just edges Maradona.

...the last player I truly idolize... No other footballer is more worthy of the number 10 shirt than him.  (on Maradona)

I had my footballing heroes such as Bryan Robson and Diego Maradona but my dad was a rugby league star, and he was my real hero. But the relationship with my mum was rocky and we saw things that would affect any youngster.

For 20 years they have asked me the same question, who is the greatest? Pele or Maradona? I replay that all you have to do is look at the facts - how many goals did he score with his right foot or with his head?

As a boy, I wanted to be the Peruvian Diego Maradona. Sadly, Peru hasnt made the World Cup since 1982, so I guess I did well to choose something different.

I don't think there is anybody bigger or smaller than Maradona.

Messi is the best player of all time. Better than Pele, better than Maradona and better than anyone else.

I have played against (Michel) Platini, (Diego) Maradona, (Johan) Cruyff and played with George Best — a lot of big names, but none of them has been able to do what Messi does. Two years ago I said that the best player I played against was Maradona and the best player I have played with was Bestie. But I can now say I have never seen a player as good as Messi. He’s in a league of his own.

Every time he plays, Leo Messi reminds me more of Maradona, both left-footed and short, Messi is the best player in the world, along with Kaká and Cristiano Ronaldo. For us it is not a surprise. Since he began to come and train with us and we knew we would go down this path. Someday I will explain that I was at the birth of one of the footballing greats: Leo Messi.

Messi is the best player ever. And this is said by someone who has seen Maradona and Pele play.

Messi is undoubtedly a gifted footballer, like Maradona and Pele, and he's playing for the best club side in the world at the moment. He's successful and he's winning trophies, so it's only logical that he'll be voted the best player in the world.

He is an exceptional talent. I still think Diego Maradona is the best player I have ever seen but Messi is closing in fast. He's a wonderful sight in full flight and we are lucky to have him around.

He is the best. The best in the world, yes. Probably the best ever. I saw Maradona a couple of times. I never saw Pele. But Cristiano is amazing. This man is the best... Cristiano is a goals machine. He is an incredible player. He is like Zidane, there will never be another Ronaldo.

Many years ago when I first started my career Maradona told me "to enjoy and play as you know", and that's stayed with me ever since and is the best advice I've been given.

Virtue is something you have to get good at, like playing the trombone or tolerating bores at parties. Being a virtuous human being takes practice; and those who are brilliant at being human (what Christians call the saints) are the virtuosi of the moral sphere - the Pavarottis and Maradonas of virtue.

Messi has all the conditions to be the best, but first he has to beat Maradona, Romario and then eventually Pele.

I'm a Pele fan from way back when I was a kid, and then there was always this thing later about Pele and Maradona. I was young and impressionable as a kid but it was always Pele for me.

Stoichkov is a great person and an exceptional player... Only if we had him at Napoli... can you imagine the Stoichkov-Maradona attacking duo?

I find it embarrassing when people compare me to Maradona. How can they? There is only one Maradona. People who say this just have no idea, they don't know what they are talking about. Diego was a complete one-off who will never have an equal on the football pitch. No-one, I repeat no-one, could have transformed teams like he did. Maradona was the world's greatest-ever player while I'm just an apprentice.

It's not that difficult to play well and win titles in a team like Barcelona, but it's in the national side where you see a player's true class. That was the case with figures like Pele, Diego Maradona and Zinedine Zidane. With Spain, Iniesta has shown that he is among the best players of all time and that's why I rate him higher than Messi or Ronaldo. Even though the latter two have incredible scoring records for their clubs, they still haven't won anything with Argentina or Portugal respectively.

Leo [Messi] is the best player of all time - better than Pele, Maradona or Cruyff. There have been some great teams in history - Pele's Brazil, Cruyff's Ajax, Sacchi's Milan - but in the past 20 years this Barcelona team is the best.

I see Maradona every time he grabs the ball and accelerates.